Many of today's popular professional and recreational sports, such as baseball, tennis, racquetball and golf, are played with a ball which must be struck by a bat, club or racquet. In these sports, an athlete's level of proficiency can oftentimes be dependent upon his or her dynamic visual acuity and/or eye/hand coordination. Accordingly, by improving dynamic visual acuity and/or eye/hand coordination, an athlete may be able to improve his or her level of proficiency in one or more of these sports.
It is possible to improve one's dynamic visual acuity and/or eye/hand coordination through the repetitious playing of a sport which requires one or both of these physical skills. However, for a variety of different reasons, many athletes find it difficult or impossible to actually play or practice their sport as frequently as required in order to maintain dynamic visual acuity and/or eye/hand coordination at a desired level. These athletes, both amateur and professional, would benefit from vision testing and training apparatus adapted to permit them to measure and hopefully improve dynamic visual acuity and/or eye/hand coordination without having to actually play or practice their particular sport or sports.
A number of devices have been developed or at least proposed for exercising the eye (see, for instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,380,508; 2,718,227; 3,419,323; 4,408,846; 4,522,474; and 4,611,583). Although these devices may have the ability to improve eye muscle control, they are not equipped or adapted to improve eye/hand coordination through the actual exercising of the motor coordination of one's hands.